Latest UCSD News

When Daniel Lee enrolled in Nate Delson’s Product Design and Entrepreneurship class at UC San Diego, becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t on his radar. But a little more than a year later, Lee and two other students at the Jacobs School of Engineering already have raised more than $450,000 through crowdfunding for their start-up company, Hush Technology. Their product? Smart wireless earplugs that block out external sounds but still allow users to hear their alarm clock and important messages via a smartphone app.

George Thornton made his first batch of beer at his sister’s apartment, using the spare bedroom to store the fermenting ale. Today, the UC San Diego alumnus is the owner of The Homebrewer in North Park, a supply store and educational resource for both beginning and advanced homebrewers. Here, customers can choose from a variety of hops, yeast, grains, additives and equipment, as well as participate in classes taught by fellow homebrewers. Next year, Thornton will open a small production brewery and tasting room next door.

“I like to get out here and sweat,” said Dalton, an elementary student at Toler Elementary, as he began a series of stretches and exercises led by UC San Diego student-athletes volunteering their time at his elementary school in Clairemont.

Committed to fostering the future of health care in San Diego, more than 1,000 donors have contributed $131 million to UC San Diego’s Jacobs Medical Center. Included in the total are gifts that matched a donation of $25 million, meeting the Challenge goal of the initiative. Today, the campus announced that the Challenge donation, originally anonymous, was made by Joan and Irwin Jacobs. They provided a $75 million lead gift for the new facility in 2010; with the Challenge gift, that brings their contributions to the Jacobs Medical Center to a total of $100 million.

A team of developers that includes UC San Diego cognitive science alumna Jelena Jovanovic has won the $500,000 grand prize in Intel’s Make It Wearable challenge for their wrist-mounted drone. The device—named Nixie—can travel a fixed distance from its owner to take a photo or video of them, and then return. Images or video can instantly be shared with friends.

Triclosan is an antimicrobial commonly found in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and many other household items. Despite its widespread use, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report potentially serious consequences of long-term exposure to the chemical.

Over the next few years, a series of regional transportation projects will occur at and around UC San Diego, transforming how students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors will access campus. The projects will accomplish everything from bringing the trolley into the heart of campus to constructing a new transit center and expanding the Genesee Avenue Bridge and Interstate 5 interchange.

UC San Diego’s newest tradition—Triton Fest—had students dancing to a silent disco, running from zombies, racing go-karts and tackling inflatable obstacles in superhero costumes. More than 7,300 students attended the fall kickoff experience, which was held the first three Friday and Saturday nights in October. The free late-night events offered an opportunity for all students to socialize and get involved in campus life early in the academic year.

In 2004, the therapeutic potential of stem cells persuaded more than 7 million Californians to approve Proposition 71, which allocated a whopping $3 billion for research and development of stem cell-based drugs and therapies that might someday address a medical dictionary’s worth of diseases and conditions.

The University of California, San Diego is one of only five top public universities in the U.S. to make the top 20 list in a new ranking of the world’s top 500 colleges. The campus took the No. 18 spot in U.S. News and World Report’s first-ever global ranking of universities which measured factors such as research, global and regional reputation, international collaboration as well as number of highly-cited papers and doctorates awarded.

The University of California, San Diego is ranked the 8th best public university in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The publication’s 2015 Best Colleges guidebook, released today, ranks UC San Diego 37th best university in the U.S. among more than 200 public, private and for-profit institutions.